by Krister Persson
[Brookhaven, Building 4, Sublevel 3]
"Oh, Mr. Cross, what an unexpected pleasure." The lab manager always felt nervous when Thaddeus Cross was visiting. There was no telling what he could find to remark on.
Thaddeus Cross III went right to the point. "How is Operation Xerox coming along?"
"Fairly well, Sir. We will have five more clones ready for dispatching next week. They are all going overseas to infiltrate the New European Central Bank in Germany."
"Any luck in replicating the cylinders?"
"None whatsoever. I?ve never seen anything so cleverly designed. So we still only have the five cylinders we bought from the excavations in Libya."
"Too bad, but as far as design goes, you?ll have to remember they?re not from this world. I?ve sent my son down to South America to negotiate with Them for the blueprints. He couldn?t stay in the U.S. anyway."
"That?s right - the lawsuit. How are you and Ms. Cross doing?"
"Both me and Becca are in the clear. The DA couldn?t find enough dirt on us to bring the case to trial. It?s worse with Ted, though. He might be facing up to 10 years imprisonment if he returns. Damn those feds!"
"Talking about feds, there were a couple of them here snooping around the other day. I believe they belonged to Team Zulu."
"Team Zulu!" Thaddeus? lip twitched. "What were they doing here?"
"Nothing to worry about, they were only interested in Kleinberg?s experiments in Building 7. Although Agent Reed did ask a few questions about CrossTech Pharmaceuticals."
"What kind of questions?"
"Nothing important. He was content with the BS line Jessica fed him."
"I learned a while ago never to underestimate Team Zulu. Let me know if they return. By the way, shouldn?t Jessica be in her office?"
"She has disappeared. No one knows where she is."
"That?s weird."
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[New York City, The sewers]
Martin felt sick to his stomach from all the bloodshed. He had been hunting animals before, but these creatures weren?t really animals per se. They were too close to humans for his liking. He couldn?t get out of the tunnels soon enough.
Standing next to the cars waiting for Vanessa and Jim who had to go back for Jim?s badge, he felt a strange urge to call Emily. Perhaps he only needed to hear her voice, and the gruesome images would go away.
"Hi honey, it's me," he said when she picked up on the second ring. There were a lot of noice in the background. "Where are you? It sounds like you're in a restaurant."
"I'm actually down at Hoover's Hollow," she replied. She didn?t sound quite as mad anymore. "Tango was called back to D.C. two days ago."
"Why?"
Emily told Martin about what had happened in Oregon. They had apparently been attacked twice, both by Docker and an unknown assailant. Also, Lisa Anders had to go before the OPR on a shooting incident, where she had killed a tourist.
"So I?m down here with my new teammates and my new teamleader, Annie Toussaint."
Martin felt relieved. "I?m glad you?re back in a relatively safe environment. I don?t know what I would have done if Docker had hurt you in any way."
"I?m glad to be back. Where are you?"
"I?d rather not talk about it right now. I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am. If you take me back, I promise I will never ever hide anything from you again. In fact, I have a confession to make."
Martin told her about his attraction to Cassandra and how she had turned out to be a lesbian.
"Tell me the truth, Martin, if she hadn?t turned out to be gay, would you have slept with her?"
"No!" Martin almost screamed in her ear. "You know I would never do a thing like that after what happened with Kyra Taylor."
Kyra Taylor had been Martin?s high school sweetheart. They were only days from getting engaged, when Martin went out and slept with the school slut. Needless to say, Kyra dropped him like a hot potato, when she found out. She married the school quarterback a few years later, a fact that Martin had a hard time to get over. Martin had lost his MVP-title to the same guy in his senior year.
"I believe you," Emily said. Martin realized he?d been holding his breath all the time, expecting the worst. He exhaled. Emily sounded much happier. "Hurry back, I miss you!"
"Me too," Martin said. "Bye." The conversation really did wonders for Martin. The images were slowly fading, when Jim and Vanessa returned and put them right back in there. Vanessa had passed out and was bleeding.
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[In the tunnels]
The creature almost let out a cry, when she saw what happened to her pack leader. She had planned to attack too, but her cubs had kept her for a minute. A minute was all it took for those humans to destroy Camilla. She turned the corner and was shocked by the sight. They were all dead, the whole pack, leaving her alone to raise her young. All she could hope for was that the humans didn?t return.
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[NRPG:] I?m back! I figured I should leave us all with a bit of a cliffhanger. Perhaps in a few years, we will see a new group of man/beasts.